Coming Soon: Bloomberg to Issue All New Yorkers Protective Helmets

<div class="image left"><img alt="20070426smoking_sm.jpg" src="http://nymag.com/daily/intel/20070426smoking_sm.jpg" width="160" height="215" /></div>It may be the surplus, or the general vogue for do-goodery, but it's becoming increasingly hard not to feel the mayor's fatherly hand on our collective shoulder. In the last several months, we've been told to <a href=http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2006/12/trans_fats_we_hardly_knew_ye.html>eat better</a>, promised a little <a href=http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/03/bloomberg_to_give_out_shiny_ne.html>cash for good behavior</a>, and handed free (and <a href=http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2007/02/is_the_nyc_condom_sending_a_me.html>small</a>) condoms. Next up, dry-cleaning tax credit, haircut subsidy, free antiperspirant? Not yet. But there is a new, $3 million gesture of love: free nicotine patches. The Health Department will be giving them away until May 15 to anyone who calls 311 and asks for one, as the <I>Sun</I> reports today; the patch-averse can pick up nicotine gum instead. You can apparently also use the cancer-ravaged vocal cords of a guy named Ronaldo to scare someone straight with an anti-smoking audio message. What a caring, and ever-so-slightly creepy, city we live in.
<a href=http://www.nysun.com/article/53239/>City to Distribute Nicotine Patches, Gum</a> [NYS]
<a href=http://www.nyc.gov/html/doh/html/smoke/smoke.shtml>Bureau of Tobacco Control</a> [NYC.gov]

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It may be the surplus, or the general vogue for do-goodery, but it's becoming increasingly hard not to feel the mayor's fatherly hand on our collective shoulder. In the last several months, we've been told to eat better, promised a little cash for good behavior, and handed free (and small) condoms. Next up, dry-cleaning tax credit, haircut subsidy, free antiperspirant? Not yet. But there is a new, $3 million gesture of love: free nicotine patches. The Health Department will be giving them away until May 15 to anyone who calls 311 and asks for one, as the Sun reports today; the patch-averse can pick up nicotine gum instead. You can apparently also use the cancer-ravaged vocal cords of a guy named Ronaldo to scare someone straight with an anti-smoking audio message. What a caring, and ever-so-slightly creepy, city we live in.